Planning commission tables Clean Express site plan after traffic, easement and signage questions

The Mentor Planning Commission on July 24 tabled further action on the preliminary site plan for Clean Express Auto Wash at 9361 Mentor Avenue, asking the applicant and staff to return with specific signage plans, clarified easement language and other conditions before final approval.

Commissioners said the changes proposed by the applicant to move vehicle queuing away from Mentor Avenue and to amend cross-access easements with adjoining Walmart and Speedway were steps forward, but that questions remained about how drivers would enter and exit the site and how the amended easement would operate if the car wash ceased operations.

Applicant Jeff Plots, of Neff and Associates, described revisions to a prior site plan and a supplemental traffic study: “we're receiving 39 cars at the peak hour and that we're able to process those through our facility,” Plots said, explaining the firm modeled a conservative processing speed to estimate queue lengths. Majeed Makhloof, legal counsel for the applicant, told the commission he had confirmed with the law director that the amended easement paperwork had been posted and that…